The life of two scientists, creating a small home, in big mountains

Category: Furnishing and Decor Page 1 of 6

Cozy Up for Winter

We are very much home-bound these days. It seems that modern culture does not orient towards home, but rather having fun outside of one’s home. To a lot of people, home is a spring board to bounce off from. But the pandemic came and changed lots of us. Home are now the center of many people’s lives. I also never felt so compelled to cultivate a nice atmosphere at home. After all, only a nice atmosphere at home can foster a good attitude for life, do you agree?

After refinishing the hardwood floor and trims in our main floor living space, I got into a nesting mode. I spent every weekend cleaning, organizing, and furnishing. It felt particularly important now the days are shorter and we spend more time inside the house. We made quite a few small changes to the living space, some small upgrades you might say. Let us take a look together, shall we?

Creating a front entry

If you have been to our house, you would know that we go in and out the house through the garage. 99% of the time, the front door is just a glorified watchtower for our dogs. But this has changed since Slav installed a keyless lock on the front door:

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I like how the stainless steel hardware looks on a white door:

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It turns out that all it required for us to utilize the front door is being able to open it without a key. OMG, I felt like such a sluggard…Anyway, we now use the front door everyday. Inevitably, shoes and handbag started to accumulate here:

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We wanted to add some storage for this space, and this bench in IKEA looked like a perfect solution:

PERJOHAN Bench with storage, pine, 39 3/8 "

We actually went to our local IKEA to purchase it. This was the first time we visited IKEA in two years. Unfortunately, it eas out of stock in our local IKEA even though the website said otherwise.ย  Let me tell you, the disruption of IKEA’s supply chain is real. On top of that, the shortage of workers made the customer service so terrible. After driving 60 miles, we still had to pay $6 to have it shipped to a local pick up place. But at least we were able to see it in person before pulling the trigger.

Such a small bench, fits perfectly in the space underneath the coat hooks.

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It is big enough to hold our daily shoes. I like that it provides a surface to put down my backpack and lunch box before taking off my shoes.

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This drop zone is at a corner of Slav’s office, just off the front door.

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This is what this corner looked like before getting the bench. The (also IKEA) rolling cart provided some storage, but not big enough for shoes and backpacks.

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Our beloved boot/glove dryer lives nearby. We use this boot dryer 24/7 during winter months for drying ski boots and gloves. I also use it to warm up our shoes and gloves in the mornings. There is always a pile of stuff next to it. I think this bench will be very helpful in holding all the wet gear.

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To complete the front entry, I added door mats inside and outside of the front door. The tan door mat inside is from LL beans. We have another one of these in the kitchen which held up really well, so this is a returned purchase. The one outside with tree pattern is from IKEA:

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Let us keep the front entry dry and dust free!

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Organizing my desk

With more and more people working from home, our houses became not only the hub we recharge, but also the place we create. Slav and I each have an office on the main floor which we use often.

Slav’s office

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Next to his desk, this IKEA cabinet houses our printing supplies and stationary. It is a beautiful piece of furniture, which I envy. But it would be a overkill for my office.

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There are all the stuff I keep around my desk. A small drawer would be nice.

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I also could use a monitor stand.

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We spotted this monitor stand in IKEA and decided to give it a try:

ELLOVEN Monitor stand with drawer, white

It took no assembly. The monitor sits on top, and my laptop can be stored underneath. The charging wires come out from the back. It is like someone designed this monitor stand just for me.

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All the stationery fit into the drawer. I also like how the white/bamboo color pairs nicely with my desk.

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This is how the computer corner looks now. Even Slav said it was “a nice setup”.

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And the rest of the desk is clean!

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New plant stand

I also picked up a new plant stand for my retreat room. A couple years ago, I got a three-tier plant stand from IKEA and have been happy with it.

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This time, I got a similar one in different shape:

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They match well when standing side by side. The new plant stand has a bigger capacity – I can now lift almost all of my plants off the floor:

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A clean and organized plant corner for winter!

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Adding comfort with a ceiling fan

Lifting the plants higher helps them to get more light. But winter can be tough for indoor plants also for the dry and still air in the house. I set a humidifier near the plant stands, but still wanted to more air movement. After discussing with Slav, we decided to replace the ceiling light with a ceiling fan:

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This low-profile Hunter ceiling fan works well with our low ceiling (92 inches). It is apparently very popular – we wanted the white color and it was sold out everywhere locally, including in Home Depot and Lowe’s. We eventually got ours off Amazon.

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It comes with a remote for turning on and off the light as well as adjusting fan speed. It is fairly quite and the lower settings provides nice air movement without bringing chills. Since it was installed, I have been keeping it on the lowest fan speed during the day, and I think it helps to unify the temperature and humidity in this room.

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Kitchen gadgets!

IKEA is famous for its small kitchen gadgets. It is almost impossible to walk away without taking any home. This time, I picked up this small tea infuser. We both drink loose-leaf teas, and the old tea infuser we have, the “duckling”, is too small for the fruit/flower tea Slav loves.

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The IKEA infuser easily holds a whole tablespoon of tea leaves, which is perfect for brewing fruit tea.

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I also like the long handle design for it to sit inside all the drinkware.

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Including Slav’s favorite water glasses. It is an IKEA favorite for only 79 cents.

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I prepared cold-brew tea with it and it was a success. Slav likes cold tea. Before, I always had to brew hot tea for him, then wait for it to cool down. Now I can simply take two teaspoons of Slav’s favorite fruit tea into the infuser, submerge it into room-temperature water for 15 minutes, then top it off with ice cubes.

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The duckling tea infuser now becomes my dedicated “Sichuan pepper infuser”. I cook with Sichuan pepper often. Slav enjoys its aroma, but hates to bite into them directly. With the help from the infuser, I can no longer need to pick every these pepper out before serving.

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Another small gadget I got for myself is this little milk frother. I start my morning by a cup of coffee. I am not picky about the coffee beans – anything freshly-ground beans brewed with a moka pot will do. But I do crave a good latte once a while. This milk frother allows me to have a quick latte with little effort and almost nothing to clean after. It is really a game changer.

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The soft things

The last thing we picked up in IKEA was a king comforter for our bed. Our old one has been with us for longer I am willing to admit, and it stopped holding its warmth. We selected this “slightly warm” comforter from IKEA.

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I use it with our beloved flannel bedding. So far, we like its weight and breathability.

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It came in this fabric packaging in good quality. I kept it for storing extra blankets in the guest room.

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With the new comforter we no longer need our old comforter and the king size flannel blanket. I washed them and sent them to a local homeless shelter along with some lightly-used winter clothes. Colorado winter is harsh. While we are fortunate to stay inside, we wish the same to all the unfortunate people that are force to camp out. Slav told me about an old Christmas tradition in Poland, which is to set an extra plate/seat on the dinner table. It is for a homeless or unexpected traveler who shows up at the door. But then he added “however in Poland, there is no homeless people… Everyone is taken care of.” This is certainly not the case in our country. People here do not have minimal security for life, and anyone, even people like us can become homeless one day because of illness, investment mistakes, and other misfortune. I hope our donation could help at least one person stay warm this winter, and I surely hope that the culture in this country could change for everyone to live without fear of losing their homes!

Have you been preparing your home for winter?

 

 

 

 

Storage Headboard DIY

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Happy Chinese New Year! This year’s zodiac animal is ox, which represents hardworking and progress. Hopefully the whole world will start moving again soon!

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Inside of my own house, the bathroom renovation has been static because Slav’s busy. I did manage to get some small DIY projects done myself and hang some art pieces, but honestly, I miss having a bathroom on the main floor.

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The latest DIY project I completed is a storage headboard for the Murphy bed:

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And now the Murphy bed area looks like this:

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The design concept

I have shown you how we installed the Murphy bed in my retreat room.

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However, the depth of this closet is 25″, a lot deeper than the required depth for the Murphy bed, leaving a significant gap.

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We knew at the time of installation that we needed a headboard to prevent pillows from slipping off the bed. In addition, we’d like to add a shelf above the bed for reading lamp, books and water or the night. Naturally, we decided to DIY this piece so it does not fit the space perfectly, but also can be customized exactly to our liking with the functionality we needed.

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I always wanted to give this wedge bolster pillow a try as a removable headboard. So the plan has always been to build a plywood box that fills the gap and also supports the wedge pillow from the bottom and from the back. This box should also provide internal storage for pillows and linen. Last, we prefer a floating design in order to expose the floor space for future refinish.

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The build

Unlike most of the furniture building, instead of completing the entire storage box in the garage then mounting it to the space, I decided to assemble this floating storage at the spot. This does not only save material, but also add structure integrity to the whole build as well as the closet. It also means that I will be measuring, cutting, and attaching different pieces to the side and back of the closet as I go.

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The first piece I cut was the bottom of the storage box. This board will support the wedge pillow, so I decided to place the bottom board just below the top of the mattress. The width of the closet measures 58″ at this height, and the unit should not be deeper than 14″ so the Murphy bed can open and close normally.

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So I cut a piece that is 14″ x 58″. Before installing it permanently, I popped it up with a stepping stool to the desired height and tested with the wedge pillow. Despite a 4″ gap between the mattress and the front edge of the board, the wedge pillow stayed in place well. This gap is required for the Murphy bed to operate normally.

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Having known that, I started with on the top surfaceย  of the storage box. I wanted the headboard to be hidden from the front view, so I chose to have the top board sitting 16″ above the bottom one, just a dash lower than the top of the wedge pillow.

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The width of the top surface should be less than 12″ to accommodate the thickness of the wedge pillow.

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I cut a 58″ x 10″ plywood piece for the top. Again, before mounting it in place, I popped it up with a planter which happens to be 16″ tall as a trial run.

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Slav was around for this part of the operation and laughed that “your furniture design depends on the objects you had nearby…” Kinda true…But hey, it was the perfect height for the top surface!

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Since the closet already had plywood sides and back, both top and bottom boards can be directly mounted to the side wall panels. Now I only need to make a front panel, which functions as a door for internal storage access, as well as the backing board for the wedge pillow.

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I cut two pieces of plywood boards as the front panel so they are easier to open and close. They are both an inch taller than the top board, so when mounted vertically, they not only cover the whole front edge of the top shelf, but also create a small curb for the top shelf.

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As you can see, the design of the headboard is extremely simple. My goal has always been keeping the headboard construction minimal and completely hidden when the bed is in use, while satisfying all the features we want for the Murphy bed area: storage, back support, and a horizontal shelf.

The installation

With all the pieces cut to size, I edge banded the pieces and cut some scrap wood strips to link the top and bottom boards onto the side walls.

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To mount the front panels/doors, I used hidden hinges to connect the door panels to the top shelf.

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A few L-bracket were mounted on the bottom board as a stop, so the door panels can stay vertical without swinging inward.

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Then I placed the wedge pillow on the bottom board and in front of the doors – now we have the storage headboard for the Murphy bed!

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Just like we planned, You cannot see the headboard when standing in front of the bed.

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The space inside the storage headboard now stores allthe pillows and beddings we have for this bed. When we need to fold the bed up, the top shelf is perfect for storing the wedge pillow. Therefore, everything for making the Murphy bed is stored in the Murphy bed alcove without occupying additional closet space.

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The finishes

I switched the painting above the bed to a set of watercolor art, and added a white lamp and a couple plants:

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The large and cool-colored art toned down all the wood color, making this little alcove a bit lighter and more relaxed.

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And this is how he Murphy bed area look like now!

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This headboard build completed all the DIY build in my retreat room/home office. The best part of the project is that I used exclusively the scrape plywood pieces from the Murphy bed build and the gear closet build, so the only cost for this project is four hidden hinges for $2.75! (We had the plywood edge band, L-bracket and screws in hand.) This is the charm of DIY – functionality, perfect fit, and saving!

Mounting and Hanging Calligraphy Pieces

Chinese painting and calligraphy have been popular art decoration in Chinese household for thousands of years. I brought a couple pieces to the States with me, but never had an opportunity to display them:

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This ink and wash landscape art is the most popular form of Chinese painting. The other piece I own is calligraphy art:

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Chinese painting and calligraphy were drawn on Xuan paper which is soft and fragile. In order to display them, they have to be mounted onto some kind of backing paperย first, before being inserted into frames or layered onto silk scrolls.

Dry mounting the calligraphy pieces

There are two ways to mount calligraphy art, wet mount and dry mount. Since I’ve never done either of the two ways before, I chose the dry mount method which looks more foolproof. The dry mount method involves first mounting the art piece onto silicone adhesive paper, then transfer the art to some kind of backing paper. To mount the art pieces onto the silicone adhesive paper, you need an iron, a spray bottle of water, and some thin paper to layer between the iron and the art work. I used a regular clothing iron with parchment paper (for baking).

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You also needed a soft but supportive surface to iron on. Since my art pieces were large, I spread a flat sheet on top of our big coffee table which worked very well.

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I unrolled the silicone adhesive paper, trimmed it a hair narrower and shorter than the art piece, then layered the art work on top of it.

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Then I gently misted the art work with water using the spray bottle. This step is for releasing the tension in the Xuan paper and reduce wrinkles and fold marks. Pay attention to only mist small amount of the water on the art work – the Xuan paper should not be soaking wet. And you do not want to get water on the silicone paper because that will add wrinkle to the final result.

After spraying the Xuan paper wet, I carefully laid the parchment paper on top of the art work, and immediately started ironing. A safe tip is to mist the art work first before even laying it on top of the silicone adhesive paper – and you can always mist the back of the painting instead of the front.

Definitely, definitely do not use the steam function on your iron – it will smear the art and even melt the Xuan paper. Iron the art onto the silicone adhesive paper using low-temp setting (such as silk).

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This particular art piece is nearly 5′ long, so I started ironing from one end, and worked my way up to the other end.

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The silicone adhesive paper is supposed to function as a double sided tape, either to connect the art piece to backing paper for framing, or to connect the art piece directly to a hanging scroll. However, I found that the silicone paper was rigid enough and could serve as alternative backing paper. So I did not use backing paper in this project.

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I used the same method to mount the calligraphy piece. It is smaller so the final result was better:

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Spray, layer, then iron. I worked this piece from the middle out to the sides, so there was no wrinkles at all:

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The dry mount method is fairly straightforward. It only took 15 minutes to get both pieces mounted.

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Framing the calligraphy

To frame the calligraphy I ordered a black frame online. The frame is made with solid wood and acrylic sheet, with a foam board backing. The construction is decent, but a bit too pricy in my opinion. I should have made my own frame with solid wood and glass for much cheaper, but considering the hours involved in DIY frames I decided to go with the easier route.

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I hung the calligraphy piece in my retreat room. I think it pairs well with the hanging plants and bamboo blinds. This piece says “Heaven rewards those who are industrious; The virtuous bear duties onerous”. A more literal translation will be “The Heavens are in motion ceaselessly; The enlightened exert themselves constantly. While the Earth is supportive and natural, Only the virtuous can bear the utmost”.

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Hanging the ink painting

Displaying the ink painting is a bit more difficult. Traditionally, Chinese paintings are displayed on silk-brocaded hanging scrolls with wood rods at the bottom to weight the piece down. However, any hanging scrolls I could found online was too small for this landscape art.

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The simplest way I could think of to display the painting is to add two wooden edges on the top and the bottom of the painting. In this way I can hang the art from the top wooden edge, and the bottom edge can weight down the painting just like the wood rod on the hanging scroll.

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I found a scrape 1″ x 2″ wood piece, cutting it to length to create two wooden edges.

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I shaped the ends of the two wooden edges like arrowheads for a better look.

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To secure the wooden edge onto the painting, I added another piece of scrap wood at the back, so the painting could be sandwiched in between the two wooden pieces.

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To joint the two pieces of wood together, a nail gun was used with the painting in between.

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It looked like this from the front of the painting. We used the same method to create the top edge, then installed mounting hardware on the back of it.

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With a couple pieces of scrap wood and 20 minutes of my time, the simple mounting method is easy and effective.

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The landscape painting was hung in our basement media room, accompanied by a couple large-scale of oil paintings. I think the white empty wall in this room allows large-scale paintings to be the focus of the room.

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The final results

Here are both of the art work in our home! The results from dry mounting and DIY hanging scroll are satisfying. I like the dose of traditional vibe these art injected into my home. Both art work was actually drawn by a good friend of my parents, whom I called uncle growing up. After years keeping his art work in drawers and collecting dust, it feels so nice to finally having them displayed and appreciated.

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What do you think of the results? Do you like traditional Chinese art?

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